No African country has made more progress than South Africa in deploying the 5G network. Vodacom, South Africa’s biggest mobile operator by subscriber base, has the fastest 5G download speed in the country. The South African government gave telecom operators a five-year deadline to finalize the rollout of 4G and 5G mobile networks.
Where is the rest of Africa?
According to TeleGeography’s report, Mauritius holds second place in Africa in terms of 5G subscriptions. Trailing behind is Nigeria with 50,000 subscriptions, followed by Togo and Seychelles with 33,000 and 16,140 5G users.
5G is still struggling in Africa
In 2020, only 7% of Africa’s 774 million mobile connections were 4G, way lower than the 44% global average. By the end of Q1 2022, less than 30% of mobile broadband subscriptions in Africa are 4G. 4G will only overtake 2G in 2023 after 3G adoption peaked in 2022.
